Is the trademark registration of "tea-loving coffee" deceptive? Xi Cha sues the State intellectual property Office!

New tea drinks in China continue to cross the border, and the happy tea, which "has always been more than tea", began to cross the border in March 2019 and started the coffee business. Breaking the traditional way of making coffee, Xi Tea took the lead in making coffee "milk tea", adding ingredients such as black sugar Bobo, milk jelly, Oreo crushed, cheese milk lid and other materials in the coffee drink, making coffee products very attractive.

At the same time, the packaging style of the product was very "Hong Kong style", which was in line with the national trend at that time, so it received a lot of praise at the time of launch, and many friends who had never been in contact with coffee products began to try coffee. With the gradual popularity of the "tea-loving coffee" series, in order to better integrate the elements of milk tea and coffee, Xi tea also actively chimerized the brand and trademark, applied for trademarks on coffee and other commodities, and made safe preparations for the listing of coffee. However, the trademark application of "tea-loving coffee" has not been approved by the Trademark Office of the State intellectual property Office.

After hearing the case, the Trademark Office held that the trademark "Xi Cha" and the citation trademark (below) significantly identify the words "Cha Cha", which are similar in composition and the same in meaning, and constitute similar logos respectively. At the same time, the "coffee drinks, coffee drinks with milk, cocoa drinks" specified by the trademark of "tea-loving coffee" belong to similar commodities with the tea drinks approved by the above cited trademarks, and the coexistence is easy to confuse the source of the goods by the relevant public. Therefore, the Trademark Office decided to reject the application for trademark registration of "tea-loving coffee".

Shenzhen Mexi Food and Beverage Management Co., Ltd., the main operator of Xi Tea, applied to register the trademark of "Xi Cha Coffee" on June 13, 2019, according to the China Trademark website. The current status of the trademark is being rejected and reviewed.

As for the rejection of the trademark of "like tea coffee", Xi Tea Company is also dissatisfied. Xi Cha believes that the use of the trademark "tea-loving coffee" on the reviewed goods will not cause public misunderstanding, so Shenzhen Mexi Food and Beverage Management Co., Ltd., an affiliated company of Xi Tea, sued the State intellectual property Office in November 2020. request the court to rescind the sued decision and order the defendant to make a new decision. At the same time, it also submitted a list of trademark files containing "coffee" elements that had been previously judged and others had registered on category 30 related goods.

After being examined by the court, the Beijing Court issued the Administrative judgment of Shenzhen Mexi Company and other first instance of the State intellectual property Office on May 26, 2022.

The court held that the use of trademarks in sugar, bread, pudding, chocolate chips containing ground coffee beans and cocoa drinks in national intellectual property disputes would easily make consumers misunderstand the characteristics and quality of the products. Therefore, according to Article 10, paragraph 1 (7) of the Trademark Law, the court confirms the decision to reject the trademark application in accordance with the provisions of Article 10, paragraph 1 (7) of the Trademark Law, which is deceptive and easy to use, such as the quality of the goods or misrecognition of the origin of the goods. The so-called deceptive sign is that the index itself or its constituent elements are deceptive, which can easily make the relevant public misunderstand the origin, origin, quality, quality and characteristics of the goods and mislead consumers. )

At the same time, it said that the evidence submitted by Shenzhen Mexi Company was not enough to prove that the trademark of "tea-loving coffee" would not mislead consumers, so its relevant claims lacked factual and legal basis, and the court refused to accept them. With regard to the provisions of the State intellectual property Office in accordance with Article 30 of the Trademark Law: "where the trademark applied for registration does not comply with the relevant provisions of this Law or is the same or similar to the trademark that has been registered or preliminarily approved by others on the same or similar goods", the court shall confirm the decision to reject the trademark application after examination. The court held that the prominent identification part of the sued trademark "Xi Cha Coffee", "Xi Cha", is similar to the citation trademark "Cha Cha" in the first and second Chinese characters (figure 3 of this article), which is easy to confuse the relevant public with the source of the trademark goods. At the same time, Shenzhen Mexi Company failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the use of the disputed trademark is significant and is not easy to cause confusion and misunderstanding by the relevant public.

The facts determined by the State intellectual property Office are clear, the applicable law and conclusions are correct, the procedure is legal, and the plaintiff's claim is lack of factual legal basis. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of Article 69 of the Administrative procedure Law, the court rejected the claim of Shenzhen Mexi Company. Photo source: online professional coffee knowledge exchange more coffee bean information please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style) more boutique coffee beans please add private Wechat Qianjie coffee, WeChat: qjcoffeex